Volstead Lounge
Wean Yourselves off Comfort
RECEIVED Tue., Sept. 20, 2005
Dear Editor,
We're slaves to a collective theory. The theory that our quest in life is to attain the highest level of “comfort,” and this disease of the mind is spreading at epidemic proportions. We all aspire to attain it. Problem is each new fix is only temporary. Just like the addiction to narcotics, comfort does not come without a price. The solution, who knows? If we can't curb the nation's drug epidemic (which is a limb off the tree of comfort) how are we going to quench our appetite collectively? This problem began the day that Homo sapiens decided to take refuge from nature; the day that we decided to protect ourselves from God's wrath. It began when we decided to place a roof over our heads and grow our own crops. We as humans wanted to control the pain that the planet inflicted onto us. So we made our lives more comfortable. Over the course of time this became a relative term. Comfort is now measured by how painful we individually perceive life to be. One might argue that's human nature. But it's also human nature to look at something objectively, to ask ourselves if it's OK to exploit the planet and other humans to achieve our own level of comfort. If we as humans have the ability to look at something objectively, why do we continue to exploit the planet for its limited resources? And exploit humans for their resources for that matter? Could this not affect our own comfort? I think there are two possible answers to that question. First, television has masked the reality of what's going on in the world. It's numbed the brain to the harshness of the planet. The scary thing is that we have generations of people numbed from the womb. Ignorance greeting us at birth with hand extended. Second, the people that are aware are the same people who are maximizing their profits. There's no profit in conservation, at least not yet. As far as exploiting humans: out of sight, out of mind. So, what's the solution? Simple, lead by example, and I don't mean for people to sell their house and go live under a rock somewhere. But rather wean ourselves off unnecessary comforts.
We're slaves to a collective theory. The theory that our quest in life is to attain the highest level of “comfort,” and this disease of the mind is spreading at epidemic proportions. We all aspire to attain it. Problem is each new fix is only temporary. Just like the addiction to narcotics, comfort does not come without a price. The solution, who knows? If we can't curb the nation's drug epidemic (which is a limb off the tree of comfort) how are we going to quench our appetite collectively? This problem began the day that Homo sapiens decided to take refuge from nature; the day that we decided to protect ourselves from God's wrath. It began when we decided to place a roof over our heads and grow our own crops. We as humans wanted to control the pain that the planet inflicted onto us. So we made our lives more comfortable. Over the course of time this became a relative term. Comfort is now measured by how painful we individually perceive life to be. One might argue that's human nature. But it's also human nature to look at something objectively, to ask ourselves if it's OK to exploit the planet and other humans to achieve our own level of comfort. If we as humans have the ability to look at something objectively, why do we continue to exploit the planet for its limited resources? And exploit humans for their resources for that matter? Could this not affect our own comfort? I think there are two possible answers to that question. First, television has masked the reality of what's going on in the world. It's numbed the brain to the harshness of the planet. The scary thing is that we have generations of people numbed from the womb. Ignorance greeting us at birth with hand extended. Second, the people that are aware are the same people who are maximizing their profits. There's no profit in conservation, at least not yet. As far as exploiting humans: out of sight, out of mind. So, what's the solution? Simple, lead by example, and I don't mean for people to sell their house and go live under a rock somewhere. But rather wean ourselves off unnecessary comforts.
Bryan Root
